To date, we have three people who have each won one quiz since I offered tea at the Lords as the prize for anyone winning three quizzes. I am happy to offer tea not only to the first person to win three quizzes, but also the second and third – and possibly more… So keep…
Lets face it, Financial regulation is in a mess. For too long the government has been happy to sit back and do a bit of political tweaking here and there, but no more. Lord Myners, City minister, crumbled at the Treasury committee meeting after the government published their White Paper on financial regulation. This was…
I have spent a good part of this year working on a new edition of one of my books, The British Polity. It is text on British politics written for an international, primarily an American, audience. It is published in the States. It includes a glossary of terms. Some of these are terms specific…
The new strap line for the Blog is ‘Life and work in the Lords’ but like most others I’m having my annual break and loving every minute here in glorious Italian sunshine. I have been practising my pasta making skills…the photo shows my home made tagliatelli hanging up to dry on string round the kitchen…
At Question Time earlier this month, the redoubtable Baroness Trumpington asked about the practice employed by some charities of sending cash through the post. The minister, Baroness Crawley, indicated that it was a practice to be deprecated. Baroness Trumpington went on to ask: “If the Government have the power to stop this objectionable practice, why…
The House last Monday paid tributes to the law lords and on Thursday the law lords held their last judicial sitting in the House. Though we may still see them individually, they cease to be members with the creation of the Supreme Court. (Under the terms of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 we also lose…
This week’s quiz questions. 1. Name at least four of the eight current members of the House of Lords who have held the post of Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons. 2. I have held five Cabinet posts, including Education Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons. I am a member of the…
Following politics here in Italy is only for those who are paying close attention. The ever-shifting sands of political parties and alliances is one of the features which makes the system so different from that in the UK. At home we have had Tories and Whigs since the late 17th Century and even modern Conservatives…
Well guess what, I can watch the Italian Senate live on TV here in Italy just like at home and it has exactly the same sort of discussions, although to be quite honest, the suits are better. For anyone with a knowledge of Italian, the next session is on 28 July, http://www.senato.it. Since a constitutional change in…
